"It was!" I was there to see this mass? lift-off spectacle. IIRC there was a facility at RAF Odiham the 'next' day which I also attended. Need to consult my pic's & jar my memory of 12 years back. Well-done! excellent images of another type 'biting the dust!

Well!...the explanations given are varied & plentiful. On those Wessex the entire length of one blade was 'yellow' top & underside. Due to the cammo' scheme, these Helo's were very hard to spot from above & the blade gave both initial acquisition & confirmation that the rotor was turning & the Helo' maybe about to / or already was flying in their native low-level operational environment. Secondly, it enabled the crew to assess rotor disc proximity in confined manoeuvres & landings. Thirdly the stroboscopic effect of the single yellow blade gave a clear indication to all & sundry... aircrew, ground-crew & errant parachutists that entering into that disc-zone would have a negative effect on their well-being. Fast-forward to the bright yellow Sea-King & the same issues apply. Easier to spot over the sea & avoid. Aids the crew to see how close to cliff/mountain vertical faces they are hovering. You don't see the yellow blade feature on operational types... Lynx, Junglies, Merlin, Chinook, Apache, Puma etc purely because they don't want to be seen from above! So why have it on that mark of Wessex?....don't ask me!

I can remember seeing a formation of around 20 Wessex flying over Somerset when the RN retired their Wessex 'Jungly' fleet at Yeovilton in he mid 1980s (1985?). I was at school at the time, and could see the formation forming up in the distance and a Lynx flying all around them, but the bell for the end of break went before they came close to the school and all I heard was the sound of them flying over